Who Were the Fianna?

When our study group chose the name Fianna, much of its history was
unknown to us. It is interesting, now, to begin to pull together
some of the legends attached to an honorable (we hope!) name.
If you find some information in your travels that adds to this controversy,
please send it in,
noting that you're suggesting we add it to our page!

[This is not the origin of our name, but it is an interesting fact! Ed.]
The author is Seán Jennett, the book is "The West of
Ireland", published by Batsford, London in 1980. On p 3 of
the introduction he says:

"In places, at at Spiddal in Galway, in Sligo, and at
Carrigaholt in Clare, there are colleges of Irish, where
students may come to learn and practice the language in the
company of native speakers... .Facility in the language may
be indicated by a small, plain ring, the fáinne, worn by
students in the lapel or as a brooch - a gold ring for the
expert, a silver one for those less so." ***

from marmar

From the Dalriada we hear
one set of legends, links provided by jeanne:
Warrior Bards
tells about the burning of TARA and
The Fianna
tells about the training of the Fianna and their functions; then about Finn
and his marvelous powers. It says:

"The legendary Fianna of Ireland were a band of mighty noble warriors.
Entrance was governed by strict tests and codes of honour. Yet the
Fianna also had to be knowledgeable of culture, and more specifically
they had to be poets. Their leader, Fionn mac Cumhal, got his poetical
and Bardic training from an old Bard Finnegas on the banks of the
river Boyne (note he was close to water, the element which rules the
intuition and emotions).

Copyright DALRIADA CELTIC HERITAGE SOCIETY, ISLE OF ARRAN.
The above has been reproduced solely for entertainment purposes and
not profit.

In the FIANNA guestbook, JCowan found the following:
Michael John Brown
From: Glasgow
Time: 1997-07-24 16:18:00
Comments: Is there any truth in the rumour that none of the Fianna were Irish, they were Pictish, Feni (Scots),
Belgae, Britons and Damonii and countless other racial group that arrived in Ireland,between 500 BC and 150 AD,
and were forced to serve the Milesian High King and ultimately betrayed and murdered by the aforementioned
Irishmen once the Romans had been forced from Ireland. I would be interested to hear your opinions on this
interpretation of the historical, archeological and cultural facts.

From the Ivory Towers we hear:

"But as time went on, Britain received a third race, after the Britons and
the Picts; that of the Scots, in the region of the Picts.
And they advanced from Ireland, led by Reuda [Cairbre Riada, reputed founder
of Dalriada in Antrim, circe 200 AD], and claimed for themselves, whether by
friendship or by the sword, the settlements which they have still: and from
this leader, to wit, they are even yet called Dalreudini, for in their tongue DAAL
signifies "a part"....

[Ireland] is properly the country of the Scots: they left it as we have
said, and added a third nation in Britain to the Britons and the Picts.

Celtic Myths and Legends written by Charles Squire,
published in 1997 by Portland House, a division of Random House Value
Publishing, Inc.,201 E 50th Street, NY,NY 10022; contains a very good
chapter on Fionn Mac Cumhail (Finn McCool) and the Fianna (Feena).

The title of Morgan Llewellyn's book on the Fianna is Finn Mac Cool.
Other books by Llewellyn include Red Branch (Cuchulain), Lion Of Ireland (Brian Boru), and
Druid (the Gallic wars from the Celtic perspective). The books are
fictional history but due to the
tremendous research she has put into them, the history is true and the
fiction lets you get to know the characters personally.

Milesian Legends
are the foundation myths for all the above! Finn is mentioned in them, too!

In Modern Times:
After John O'Mahony (b. Co. Cork) got through translating Keatings History
of Ireland from the Gaelic he published it in New York. He then founded the
Fenian Brotherhood in the United States and the Irish Republican
Brotherhood in Ireland under James Stephens. The Fenian Brotherhood
(founded in 1857) took their name from Finn McCool and the Fianna. They
rose to be a national force in American Politics and attacked Canada three
times between 1866 and 1870.

And all the modern political stuff in Ireland.... of which THIS FIANNA has
NO part :) We are interested ONLY in the ancient historical things.